Daniel Perry and his partner Socorro Gonzalez have been coming to FloraFEST for 15 years selling cacti and succulents. Their small business, Rio Grande Cacti, has brought over 1,500 seed-grown plants and will be giving 40 percent of all proceeds to the UTEP Chihuahuan Desert Gardens.

“When I had my 40th birthday I wanted a cactus for my garden and no one had any that were seed grown so I didn’t really want to support taking cactus from the wild,” Perry said.

People come from all over El Paso to buy plants or to get ideas for their own garden. El Paso Community College geology teacher, Kathleen Devaney, came from the Northeast to add to her own garden.

”I try to come like every other year,” Devaney said. “I’ve gotten some Yellow Bells and Pinyon before, and I got Sages this year.”